Max Finberg has dedicated his career to serving others, especially hungry people. He has a wide range of experience in the government, non-profit, and political arenas.

In May 2009, he was appointed by Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack to direct USDA’s Center for Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships. Contained in the Office of the Secretary, the Center’s mission is to build partnerships between USDA and faith-based and neighborhood organizations to better serve individuals, families and communities. The USDA Center works closely with the President Obama’s White House Office on Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships. USDA administers programs that benefit one in five Americans with nutrition assistance, contribute to rural development, promote environmental stewardship and feed hungry people around the world.

Previously, he was the first director of theAlliance to End Hunger, a non-profit organization that engages diverse institutions in building the public will to end hunger, both in the United States and worldwide. The Alliance connects U.S. businesses, religious bodies, charities, foundations and individual donors to change the politics of hunger.

Mr. Finberg graduated with honors from Howard University’s School of Divinity with a master’s degree in Social Ethics and with bachelor’s degrees in Political Science, German and International Relations from Tufts University, where he met his wife Katherine. Their daughter, Eliana, was born in Rome in March 2005 and son, Matthias, was born in Washington, DC in July 2008. Max was born and raised in the Catskill Mountains of Upstate New York.

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The recent Executive Order ensures that an organization isn’t proselytizing with federal money and protects the religious freedom and identity of the organization. “There’s model guidance coming out for all the agencies across the government to make sure that there’s consistent practice on that in grant making,” according to the White House Office of Faith-based and Neighborhood Partnerships Panel.

“[It] is a model that’s being expanded,” says Max Finberg, Director of the Center for Faith-based and Neighborhood Partnerships at the U.S. Department of Agriculture. The Ohio Benefits Banks is attempting to create ways to assist people seeking federal aid using the combined efforts of Heath and Human Services, the USDA, several faith-based organizations and the state and federal government working together to break down the barriers between the individual and the aid.